Fleet Space Technologies’ SPIDER bound for the moon — and beyond
A device made in SA is on course for an astronomical feat that could return Aussie tech to the moon for the first time in 50 years – and then travel even further.
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One of South Australia’s leading start-up businesses is developing pioneering technology for a NASA mission to the moon that will investigate if life can be supported in space.
In what industry leaders hailed as among Australia’s most exciting astronomical feats in half a century, Fleet Space Technologies is creating a geophysical device to explore the moon’s South Pole surface.
The groundbreaking device, called Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research (Spider), will record any natural seismic waves in the search for water ice deposits and critical minerals.
Fleet Space, an Adelaide satellite start-up, is using a $4m Australian Space Agency grant to develop the technology for NASA’s lunar mission, dubbed Blue Ghost Mission 2, in 2026.
If successful, it will be the first time Australian technology will fly to the moon in almost 50 years and pave the way for similar space missions to Mars.
Fleet Space co-founder, Matthew Pearson, said his firm was “poised to be the first Australian technology to touch down on the surface of the moon”.
“This is huge… we’re a nation of explorers and NASA has come to Australia saying how are we going to explore huge areas of the moon and Mars very quickly,” he said.
“This is doing what Australia does best… on the moon. So it’s a massive thing for Adelaide, it’s a massive thing for Australia.”
Under NASA’s “commercial lunar payload services initiative”, the international mission to the moon’s far side will also include other yet-to-be-determined payloads from the US and European space agencies.
He said the mission, in which Fleet Space’s technology is transported to space on a lunar module US company Firefly Aerospace is developing, was primarily about finding water.
Mr Pearson, the firm’s chief exploration officer, said any infrastructure “built on other worlds” depended on a “deep understanding” of the Moon.
“The most precious thing we can find anywhere to sustain life on other worlds, is water, and lots of it,” he said on Friday.
“So, this little seismic experiment is designed to be the first step in searching under the subsurface of the moon for water ice.
“The last (Australian) seismic experiment to go to the Moon was… 48 years ago.
“So this is updated modern technology. We’ve shrunk all the best things that we’ve got in geophysics into this tiny little package and then this is going to the far side of the Moon.”
He added: “It’s showing that Australia can develop leapfrog technologies in space. We can go with the latest technology that we’re developing for exploration on Earth and use it to find ways to sustain life in other worlds.”
He said his team’s work would help “humanity’s efforts towards colonisation” as part of NASA’s Artemis program and Australia’s Moon to Mars initiative.
Officials say future Moon trips will underpin how to send the first astronauts to Mars.
Head of the Australian Space Agency, Enrico Palermo, said the Spider technology showcased the country’s “high-tech ingenuity”.
He said: “Innovating for the harsh environment in space, where resources (such as) water are scarce… ultimately advances technology and sustainable practices here.”
Firefly Aerospace spacecraft mission manager, Farah Zuberi, said the technology was “incredibly valuable in supporting human space exploration”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden last month signed special rules on space technology.
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